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Libra
Basics * Facebook's currency, called the Libra, backed by Libra Reserves, looked over by Libra Association which is comprised of a consortium of big companies, accessed to by using the Calibra Wallet * "Facebook is set to begin testing its cryptocurrency this year (2019) with plans for a public rollout in 2020, reports the BBC; referred to internally as GlobalCoin but then announced as Libra, the company is expected to reveal details of the project this summer; the digital currency will underpin the firm’s Project Libra, a worldwide payments network; Facebook has sought regulatory advice from the US Treasury, and held discussions with Bank of England head Mark Carney" The technology behind the coin * The stable coin will be backed by FIAT; the USD, GBP, EUR and JPY for now. Kind of like SDR's that are also used by Maker * For now it will be a permissioned blockchain with well known node operators. The plan is that it will grown into a permissionless blockchain within 5 years. * HotStuff will be the consensus protocol behind the Libra BFT blockchain. For a look into HotStuff check out this link. * For a timeline so far (12-6-2109) check here * Facebook says they won't tie your money to an ID according to the whitepaper: "The Libra blockchain in pseudonymous an allows users to hold on ore more addresses that are not linked to their real-world identity.” ''But that’s not true because ''“Calibra will require users to go through an intensive Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC)” on-boarding for every user. Funding and the investment token * Facebook is planning to launch a full payments network (rather than just remittances) and in discussions with payment networks Visa and Mastercard, payments processors such as giant First Data as well as large e-commerce merchants to support the launch. *# Facebook is seeking up to $1 billion in investments collectively from these firms in order to act as collateral to bolster and back a stablecoin that will be associated with the payments network. *# A stablecoin will exist as the currency of the payments system in order to eliminate credit card fees for merchants as well as to avoid the volatility of other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether. *# The company is considering tying the coin to Facebook's core ads engine, rewarding users for viewing ads and then purchasing goods, similar to how loyalty points rewards work. * According to new sources the coin will be funded by a consortium of companies. "Enlisting the support of some of the most prominent companies across payments, retail, and technology, Facebook’s cryptocurrency will be governed by a consortium of firms known as the Libra Association, which includes the likes of Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and dozens of firms not previously known to be involved, including investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, and non-profits including Mercy Corps. Calibra, a subsidiary Facebook formed to oversee the social media giant’s crypto efforts, is also among the founding members. This funding from the consortium members will back the coin (each will put 10 million in the Libra Reserve), which will be pegged to a basket of currencies. If successful, Facebook could net $1 billion from the 100 companies it hopes to include in the project. Each of these nodes will also reportedly get a seat in the Libra Association as node operators, sending a representative to the consortium." Each of the members will get a Libra Investment Token (LIT), with which they can participate in the governance of the Libra Association. There might also be a possibility that they will get rewarded in LIT for taking care of the nodes in the system. * The Libra Association will manage the Libra Reserve to maintain stability and create growth of the Libra economy. The rent that will be earned on the Libra reserves will be used to pay for the costs. The Libra Association will be the only entity that can create and destroy Libra * The Association creates new Libra when authorised resellers bought it with fiat to cover for the new Libra. Libra will be destroyed when authorised resellers sell Libra back to the association. The Libra Reserve will therefor act as the "buyer of last resort".'' For a partial list of the members check below. * ''"In a nod to cryptocurrencies’ open source ethos, the project has an active, live Libra Core “in anticipation of a global collaborative effort to advance this new ecosystem,” described as “a set of replicas — referred to as validators — from different authorities to jointly maintain a database of programmable resources. These resources are owned by different user accounts authenticated by public key cryptography and adhere to custom rules specified by the developers of these resources. Validators process transactions and interact with each other to reach consensus on the state of the database. Transactions are based on predefined and, in future versions, user-defined smart contracts in a new programming language called Move." * "Developers working for startup OpenZeppelin found vulnerabilities in Move. “The vulnerability in the Move IR compiler allows malicious actors to introduce executable code to their smart contracts disguised as inline comments,” OpenZeppelin’s CEO Demian Brener told CoinDesk. Brener said the code was disclosed to Libra Aug. 6, with the Libra team evaluating and fixing the bug over the following month. As of Sept. 4, the patch was reviewed and confirmed to be fixed by OpenZeppelin." * Move its first implementation will be in Rust. Team, Members, investors, etc. * Facebook's Project Libra now counts one in five staff as former PayPal employees, according to Bloomberg's Facebook insiders (PayPal itself however pulled out of the project in 10-2019); per the sources, the coin, which could launch as early as Q3 this year, will be sandboxed in India via Facebook's WhatsApp. Facebook has also picked up two ex-Coinbase employees for its blockchain and other products; * David Marcus; Facebook Head of Calibra * Jeff Cartwright has been tapped for policy and compliance work and brings experience from American Express and Goldman Sachs; * Mikheil Moucharrafie has been hired as a compliance officer for the social media giant's blockchain project. * Christian Catalini; one of the 53 authors of the white paper * "Libra intends to admit new members to the Association in 2020, a person familiar with the situation said. The waitlist is currently north of 1,500 companies. A roughly two-thirds majority of existing members must agree to add any new participant." Here is the partial list of consortium members: Blockchain * Coinbase – cryptocurrency wallet and exchange platform * BisonTrails – infrastructure-as-a-service company. Its platform enables a variety of features including staking, validating, voting, transacting and securing blockchain protocols * Xapo – cryptocurrency custody provider * Anchorage – custodial service for digital assets E''-''commerce * Farfetch – online platform for luxury fashion Investment firms * Andreessen Horowitz – venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz * Union Square Ventures – venture capital firm based in New York City * Creative Destruction Lab – seed-stage program for scalable, science-based companies * Ribbit Capital – venture capital firm that invests in early-stage companies * Thrive Capital – venture capital firm focused on internet and software investments Nonprofit * Women’s World Banking – uses a network of 40 independent micro-finance institutions and banks provide support to entrepreneurs in the underdeveloped world with an emphasis on women * Kiva – 501 non-profit organization that allows users to lend money to low-income entrepreneurs in over 80 countries through its platform * Mercy Corps – global humanitarian aid organization that provides support to regions hit by disasters, whether they be economic, environmental, social or political Payments * PayU – assists online businesses with accepting and processing payments * (Pulled out of the project on 11-10-2019) Mastercard – global payments provider Ride-share * Lyft – transportation company that offers ride-sharing * Uber – ride-sharing platform Social Media * Facebook (Calibra) – subsidiary Facebook created for Libra Telecommunication * Vodafone – British multinational telecommunications company (Pulled out of the project on 21-1-2020) * Illiad – French provider of telecommunication services Possible future Node opperators * Binance - Exchange who has speculated on becoming one Who's not in the coalition is just as interesting as who's in it. No banks. Not one. Members pulling out of the projects After USA congressional threats multiple members pulled out of the Libra project. * PayPal – operates a worldwide payment system (pulled out of the project on 4-10-2019) * Ebay – e-commerce corporation that enables consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website (Pulled out of the project on 11-10-2019) * Mercado Pago (MercadoLibre) – Argentine e-commerce site incorporated in the U.S. with an online marketplace and auction (Pulled out of the project on 11-10-2019) * Visa – payments technology company (Pulled out of the project on 11-10-2019) * Stripe – technology company where businesses can send and receive payments over the internet (Pulled out of the project on 11-10-2019) * Booking Holdings – provider of online travel (Pulled out of the project on 14-10-2019) "Non-profits Kiva and Mercy Corps, venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), crypto custodian Anchorage, Bison Trails and wallet provider Xapo all confirmed to CoinDesk Friday (11-10-2019) their intent to stay in the Libra Association." * Libra responded it still believes (16-10-2019) it will launch with 100 starting members: "The Libra Association said some 1,500 firms have expressed interest in joining the project with about 180 meeting the given criteria. Fourteen of the original 21 members must agree to each new party joining the project, however." Category:Coins/Tokens